A comparative study on freedom of electronic media between Malaysia and the United States of America / Nur Amalina Zulkifli … [et al.]

This is a comparative research project conducted to determine the extent of the freedom of electronic media in Malaysia as opposed to the United States of America. Basically, the right of freedom of electronic media is exercisable within the scope of freedom of speech conferred to the citizens of Malaysia by Article 10(l)(a) of the Federal Constitution. However, this freedom of speech and expression is not absolute in that it is subject to the legal restrictions imposed under Article 10(2)(b). By virtue of this provision, Parliament had enacted legislations among others, Sedition Act 1948 and Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 which directly limits the freedom of speech and expression that may fall under the eight grounds of restrictions. In this paper, Article 10 of the Malaysian Federal Constitution, Sedition Actl948 and Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 are compared to the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, Children's Online Privacy Protection Act 1998 (COPPA), Child Online Protection Act 1998 (COPA), Children Internet Protection Act 2000 (CIPA). The comparison between these two countries is for the purpose of illustrating the divide between the USA, which practices an open concept of freedom of speech that is almost without restrictions with Malaysia, which is a democratic country and has the freedom of speech guaranteed in the Federal Constitution but faces major obstacles in exercising the right.